Matt Van Dam has driven a variety of trucks in his life, but an R-model Mack will always have a special place in his heart.
“I’ve driven Kenworths, Super-Liners and R-models, but I got my licence in an R-model,” Matt says.
“My father-in-law used to drive one, and it’s been something I’ve chased for a long time.”
Matt’s dream finally came true about two years ago, when he tracked down a ramshackle 1982 Mack R612 RST.
“I’ve got the build sheets – the truck was commissioned for Banavas Transport and delivered to them in February 1982,” he says.
“I think it did highway work for them, like Sydney to Melbourne, but I’m not 100 per cent sure on that.
“I bought the truck off a man called Diego Manos in Sydney, and it was pretty run-down and unregistered – I don’t think it had been registered for about 14 years at that stage.”
Based in Bairnsdale, Victoria, Matt sent a float up to NSW to pick up the rig.
Once it was safely home, it was time for the restoration process to begin.
“It was basically a full rebuild of the truck, like it would be in the factory,” he says.
“It took about 18 months, from start to finish.”
Matt is the proud owner of two companies – logging enterprise Boss Logging, and East Vic Trucks, a truck repair workshop and Mack, UD and Volvo authorised dealer.
Because of this, Matt had plenty of resources at his disposal when it came to fixing up the R-model.
“We’re a Volvo Australia CMV sub-dealer and we have a machine shop and fabrication shop, a hydraulic repair workshop and a lot of call-out vehicles and product support vehicles.
“We’ve got a very extensive workshop, and we did the full resto in there.”
Matt was also lucky enough to have the help of an experienced tradesman, Frank Temstra, who dived head-first into the project.
“Frank is old school and a perfectionist,” Matt says.
“He has the attitude of ‘Let’s do things right’, not ‘She’ll be right’, and he has a lot of patience.
“We were lucky to have a tradesman of that standard because a lot of his skills are a dying art.”
He adds, laughing: “He doesn’t particularly like me, I don’t think, but he’s taken on whatever challenge I’ve thrown at him and passed it with flying colours.”
Frank kicked off by stripping the truck down to the chassis rails, before the rebuild could begin.
“We had to split the chassis rails in half because it was a double rail Mack,” says Matt.
“So, we had them sandblasted and put them back together.
“We had to straighten them out because they had been pushed apart by the rust in between the rails.
“There was a lot of work in that.”
Next up was the cabin, with Matt buying a spare from Queensland because the original one was so rusty.
“Unfortunately, when we got the cabin down from Queensland and sandblasted it, it turned out to be not much better than the one we had.
“But there were some sections that were better than the other cab.
“In the end, Frank made one cabin out of two, fabricating any parts that we couldn’t use because they were too badly rusted.”
The doors of the cab weren’t in great shape either, with rust along the bottoms, so Frank also rebuilt those.
“He even went to the length of putting in factory press marks – he was so particular with it,” Matt says.
Frank also painted the truck maroon and white, Boss Logging’s fleet colours.
Meanwhile, the bullbar was built by a company in Toowoomba, Big Rig Bullbars.
“The bullbar is a Bocar copy.
“Bocar bullbars were pretty popular on the older Mack trucks, but they don’t make bullbars anymore, so it’s a replica.”
So, the exterior of the truck was looking schmick – but what about the interior?
“We modeled the interior off a 1982 Mack Super-Liner, which was factory,” Matt explains.
“It’s from the build sheet of our Super-Liner, so it’s exactly the same as that.
“It has what’s called West Coast trim, with a brand-new custom dash – it’s customised in the gauge layout and everything like that.
“And I had the seats rebuilt in Queensland at Seats R Us.”
Matt also bought a second-hand sleeper bunk, because the truck had no sleeper when he bought it.
“It came off a Super-Liner, it’s a mid-rise bunk.
“Frank stripped it all down and rebuilt that as well, and he did all the interior trimming himself.”
To top it all off, a little gold bulldog was placed at the front of the bonnet.
“I was actually given that dog by Mack Trucks Australia quite a few years ago and I had it in my office,” he says.
At the time of writing, the truck was almost complete, with the exception of some scrollwork on the sleeper bunk.
“Crackers – [signwriter] Gordon McCracken – is going to come and scroll and line the sleeper bunk,” Matt says.
“We’re also going to get him to put the words ‘Quite Frankly’ on the bonnet.
“It’s a dedication to Frank, but it also depicts the journey to rebuild the truck – because quite frankly, it was tough!”
Matt couldn’t be happier with how the truck has turned out.
“It’s exceeded my expectations – I think it’s exceeded a lot of people’s expectations,” he says.
“I’ve sent photos to the bloke I bought it off and he can’t believe how good it’s come up.”
Matt intends to keep the Mack as a show truck, and won’t be putting it to work.
“We’ve put a lot of time and money into the truck and we want to preserve it,” he says.
“It will probably be taken to some truck shows or functions – my dad and son are into that a bit.”
Sharing his advice to anyone undertaking a difficult restoration project, he says: “It depends what you want to achieve out of it.
“We never did it for financial gain, but if you were trying to make a profit on a restoration you’d have to be very calculated in how much money you spent.
“We met a lot of great, enthusiastic people over the course of this restoration, and it’s been good for me.
“My advice would be to enjoy the journey.”
- This story was first published at Big Rigs sister site, tradetrucks.com.au.
Thankyou so much for a great article, my late Dad steered an R600 around the east coast for many years, a company that was called Brambles Port Kembla. He had a float which transported mostly track machines around, while we went on many day outings with him and thoroughly enjoyed it. RIP Ted Hill.
That was a great story of resoring a classical rig, as only the pre-90’s could make. So nice to see it out and about some time.